


Oh god, please no, why.

by Parspicle



Category: Undertale, 宝石の国 | Houseki no Kuni | Land of the Lustrous (Anime & Manga)
Genre: All nonbinary characters, Angst, Bad Ending, Collapsing, Fainting, Loss of Limbs, Other, SCREECHING, Self Harm, Swords, because hell yes, being taken away, ice flows, losing their sanity, this is a ship fic I swear, uhhh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2020-10-25 20:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20730176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parspicle/pseuds/Parspicle
Summary: It's wintertime.Phos (nightmare), little three point five, can't sleep. They decide to help with winter.





	1. You get 250 words of Oh Shit

Nightmare fell onto their knees as soon as they _finally_ got to the beach of beginnings.

“Oh my god, I’m never walking again…”

Ink rolled their eyes, spreading their legs apart to steady themself. They readied their sword and swung it. Nightmare’s face cracked from the breeze, which also blew away the snow and ice, revealing a bunch of gold and silver alloy, along with others, on the floor.

Nightmare almost fell asleep. But then, out of nowhere, a Nightmare-sized upper body, red and sparkling, fell. They yelped. Ink came over, inspecting it.

“Ruby. Hardness of… 9. It won’t work for you. Your inclusions may be strong, but not that strong. Alloy is soft enough, but it’s heavy.”

“What happened to that gem…?”

Ink looked back to Nightmare. They sighed, digging through the dirt with their sword. “They never gained consciousness, if you’re worried.”

“What’s going to happen to it…?”

“Someone will use them for parts if we need. One of the diamonds, maybe.”

“Oh.”

Ink thought for a moment. They grabbed a piece of gold alloy and slid it onto Nightmare’s stump of an arm. It clinked. They blinked.

“Woah, weird. And heavy.”

“Can you stand?”

Being the rulers of bad timing, the skies cleared. The Lunarians took this opportunity and appeared.

“Damnit- not now!”

“Uh, Ink?”

Ink prepped their sword, not looking back. “What?”

“I think…”

Ink turned, seeing the alloy start to stretch and slowly take over Nightmare. Their eyes widened.

“I think something went wrong.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Sir!” Antarcticite- _Ink_ saluted after pulling on their uniform(a white, puffy-sleeved top over a white button-up and a black-tie) and marching back to Gaster’s office. They were greeted with a smile.

“Good morning, Ink! How are you feeling?”

“As always, perfect.”

“It must be lonely for you to do this by yourself every year. I wish I could do more.”

“No, no, it’s fine. But… may I do the usual?”

“Of course.”

Little three-point-five peaked out from behind one of the pillars, just as Ink jumped into a hug, having their hair ruffled.

After a moment, Ink opened their eyes and noticed little Nightmare watching.

They screamed.

“Phosphophyllite! Why are you awake?!” Ink’s face was flush with a soft blue hue. They seemed embarrassed.

“Well, I… I couldn’t sleep! I couldn’t get to bed for some reason. Is it okay that I’m up?”

Gaster seemed amused. “Well then, I suppose it could be the two of you this year.”

“Yay!”

Ink raised their voice, “With all due respect, I don’t want to work with _this one!_”

“What does ‘the usual’ mean?”

Ink grabbed Nightmare’s shoulders with a heavy thud, staring directly back into their eyes. Their eyes yelled something about it not being Nightmare’s business.

“You’re the one who always sleeps until the last moment. And the one who goes to sleep the earliest. You keep doing _whatever_ you want, even though you’re more solid than I. Are you not ashamed? Have you made _any _progress this year? Were you so upset you couldn’t sleep?”

“Y’see, uh…” In a flash, Nightmare was across the hallway, already fallen snow flying back up. Ink stared in shock as they skid to a halt.

“Those… weird legs. They’re made of agate? Did you go out to fight?”

“I did, but… at the biggest moment I was needed, I got scared. I couldn’t run.”

“Did you get scolded?”

“No!” Nightmare ran back.

Ink stopped Nightmare with their sword, letting them catch onto it so they didn’t fall. “Too _soft_. That’s why working in a group is-“

“The fact that nobody yelled at me makes me so, so frustrated that I can’t sleep…”

Ink stared. They towered over Nightmare, staring into their soul.

“They say it’s a chore just being _awake_ during winter. So, I thought… I thought I’d-“

“In that case, I’ll share one of my jobs with you.”

“Really?!”

“It’s going to be tough.”

“I don’t… want to do it. But I’ll do it! I’ll prove myself!”

Ink’s path was straight, determined. As if they had walked the same path their whole life.

Well, in a sense, they had.

Nightmare kept veering off to the sides. He was what felt like miles away.

“The light… it’s… so faint.”

Nightmare collapsed.

Ink looked back, stopping. “We’re only halfway. If the sun comes out- as you so much want it to, the Lunarians will come with it.

Even if you can’t walk, walk.”

Nightmare continued to drag themself.

“We’re here.”

The pair reached the beach.

In the cold, desolate chunks of ice of the ocean, a burst of light glared out across the sky.

Nightmare pointed, horrified. “Lu… Lunarians!”

Ink rolled their eyes, sighing, “No. Just an ice flow. When the ocean freezes, if the tiny organisms get mixed into the ice, it makes,” they gestured towards the frozen-firework-like ice, “_that._”

Nightmare stared.

“…Just once… Gaster called them ‘sinful ones’. For some reason, I’ve never been able to get that out of my head.

They shook their head.

“Here we go.”

“Huh?”

Ink pulled their sword out of its sheath as the ice flows began to scratch at each other, like a prisoner trying to escape their cell.

“Woah… What a sound…”

“This is only the beginning.”

The ice flows shrieked. It shook Nightmare to their very core. They began to crack.

Ink stayed standing. They shouted, “When these big flows scrape against each other, they roar. It makes it hard for the others to sleep. _So_,_ We_ are going,” They pulled their sword in front of them, revealing a serrated blade, “to break them.”

Nightmare stared.

Ink ran, taking off like a butterfly to the wind. They reached the top, getting to the very, very tip, and leaning down, piercing the ice with their heels each time they hit their foot down.

When they reached the bottom, they turned gracefully and stabbed through the breaks.

The ice cracked apart and fell into the seas.

“Now. Your turn.”

“No way!”

Hours later, Nightmare laid in front of a glowing jellyfish, trying to absorb any bit of light they could.“I’m flattered you’d share such an amazing job with me, but… I think it’s a little early for me. I only have,” Nightmare lifted their legs, showing the striped pattern, “_these_ to work with.”

“I’m not at my best this temperature either. If I were to fall into the ocean, I’d easily be crushed. You just need to get used to it.”

“Really? You’re not just throwing dangerous work at me so you can have Gaster all to yourself, are you?”

“Do you _want_ me to break you?” Ink sighed, looking at Nightmare. “You’re three and a half, right? I’m three. We have some of the lowest solidity, so if we lose heart or spirit, we’ll have nothing left.”

“I can only do what I can,” three-point-five groaned, getting closer to the jellyfish.

“That’s because you only do what you can.”

“I’ll do my best at the few things I _can_ do.”

“Then you’ll never be able to do anything but that.”

Nightmare prepared themself, getting into a similar position to what Ink had done the day before.

“Ready… set…”

Nightmare got lower.

“Go!”

Nightmare took off, doing exactly what Ink had done yesterday. They got to the top, stabbed the tip, and ran down. They were practically screeching the whole way down.

“That’s it!” Ink cheered, watching with a careful eye.

They stabbed downwards, and…

_Crack!_

Almost.

Nightmare sawed at one of the smaller flows, trying to break off bits and pieces so it’d be easier to break.

Ink was in the background, flying across the fields of ice. The shrieking of the flows, so close to them, slowly started breaking their face.

_This is going to drive me nuts…_

“_Are you okay?_”

Nightmare screamed, “Ink!”

Said gem ran over, using a broken piece of ice as a makeshift raft.

“What’s wrong?”

“This is the end for me.”

“More complaints?”

“The ice flow _talked_!”

Ink shrugged. “Yeah. They do that.”

Nightmare blinked. How could they be so chill about it?!

“According to Gaster, the ice flows are crystals. Like us. So we can kind of understand them. To be more precise, they make noises that _sound_ like words, but aren’t actually. I can’t understand-“

“‘It hurts’. ‘It’s painful’. ‘I wanna go home’. I can hear it cl…” Nightmare got cut off by a shriek, and they grabbed onto Ink’s legs.

“You’re hopeless.”

“You can understand the ice flows.”

“I think… I vaguely remember being able to talk to things in the ocean.”

“So can I.”

“I know! How about I ask the ice flows to stop screaming?”

“Give up. That won’t end well. It’s not as though the ice has a will of its own. However, it reflects the unease of those who see it. Keep your heart at peace when you face the ice.”

“Yessir!”

“Nightmare has been keeping up better than I thought they would,” Ink stated. Gaster walked over, ruffling Ink’s hair.

“I see.”

“I know it can’t be done,” That got Nightmare’s attention, “but I wish their arms were as powerful as their legs.”

“As… strong as my legs…” Nightmare stared at their arms, focusing on them instead of the crashing of the ice flows. They raised their blade, and…

“No, no! What am I thinking?! Sci told me there weren’t any more replacements!”

“_But you could become strong fast._”

Nightmare glanced around. A hole had opened up in the flows.

“_It’ll go well for sure! I’ll bite it off for you.”_

“_Your legs got better._”

“_It won’t get much worse!”_

“_Surely, someone knows a way.”_

_ “You need to change!”_

_ “it’ll work out somehow.”_

_ “You need to hurry!”_

Nightmare stared. They crawled over, reaching towards the gap. They lurched back.

“No, no, no! I can’t do something like…”

They slipped.

“Nightmare?” Ink looked around, hearing a crash.

“Nightmare?!”

Ink grabbed the little gem out of the water, practically screaming, “What… are you doing?!”

As the water dripped off Nightmare, Ink stared in shock. Nightmare’s arms were…

Gone.

Ink placed Nightmare aside, diving down into the water. They narrowly avoided crash after crash, as if the ice was trying to shatter them.

They had to grab their own hand.

Nothing. They went deeper.

Gone. Deeper.

Gone. Deeper.

Gone.

They were at the bottom.

Still nothing.

“Phosphophyllite’s arms have been lost.”

Gaster’s chalk clattered to the floor.

“It was my mistake. I apologize.”

“Wait, what? No, no, no matter how you look at it, it was all my fault!”

“I searched everywhere I could, but…” Ink gripped their broken-off hand tighter. “I’ll go back and look once more!”

Ink was ushered into the long sleeves of Gaster’s cloak.

“It was my lack of caution.”

“No. I’m so unused to working with someone. I got careless. I never failed like this before, so…” Ink curled up. “I didn’t… I didn’t know what to do…”

Nightmare tried to help.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve failed like this. So don’t worry!”

** _“I’m gonna worry!”_ **

“Well, um, look! It’ll work out somehow! Just like my legs did!”

“If I recall correctly, we have no material that suits you. Do you know what you ought to to?”

“All I can do is throw up my hands and give up…”

“That was fast.”

Nightmare tried repeating what they said, but slower.

“Go search the beach of beginnings.”

“Huh?”

“The southwest beach. You’ve… lost so much of your memory. The beach of beginnings…

is where you two were born.”


End file.
